Touchstone Theatre gets MAP Fund Grant for Civil War project

June 25, 2011

Touchstone Theatre recently won a $31,294 grant from the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, an initiative that supports new projects in all disciplines of the performing arts. The grant will be put toward Touchstone's next community-based work, a commemorative play celebrating the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War currently titled "The Civil War/Cemetery Project."

MAP was established by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1989. In 2001, Creative Capital began administering the program, and in 2008, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation became the primary funder, with additional support by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This year, the MAP Fund will award a total of $1 million to 40 grantees, selected by a panel of peers from more than 800 applicants. "To be included as one of 40 awardees from across the country is extremely gratifying," says Touchstone Producing Director Lisa Jordan, "and it's a testament to the creation of new work and community-based theatre that Touchstone is known for."

Touchstone Theatre's "The Civil War/Cemetery Project," written by Alison Cary of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is a new community-based dramatic work premiering in April, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. The production draws from biographies of individuals who lived during those years and who are buried in Bethlehem; the yearlong project will include performances, workshops and lectures, along with a documentary, souvenir book and accompanying website.

"The Civil War/Cemetery Project" will explore themes of race, class, gender and ethnicity, studying the effects of the country's first "total war" on this heterogeneous Pennsylvanian city. The purpose of the work is to tell a story for all people regarding war and peace, Union and States Rights, and slavery and freedom.

This project will be produced as part of the Historic Bethlehem Partnership's Civil War Commemoration, a Lehigh Valley collaborative recognizing the Civil War through art, discussions, music and drama. More funding for "The Civil War/Cemetery Project" has been pledged by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

"The Civil War/Cemetery Project" marks the third time that Touchstone has received a MAP Fund grant. In 1991, MAP supported "The Chile Project," which led to the creation and premiere production of "Daedalus in the Belly of the Beast" at Touchstone; and in 2006 MAP funded a Touchstone-guided cultural exchange that sent members of Bethlehem's Latino community to Apache reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.